Loners, Stoners and Spencer
by lostxmyself
Summary: Ironic, that the only people she seemed to fit in with were the 'misfits.'
1. Prologue

It must have been almost three in the morning when Spencer sat in the driveway staring blankly at the street. Everyone else—everyone being her mother, her father, and her two brothers Clay and Glen—were sound asleep, already getting used to their new surroundings. The blonde sighed notably. New rooms, new house, and completely new lives.

Spencer, however, just couldn't bring herself to sleep. She lay tirelessly on her bed, just watching the ceiling waiting for slumber to take over. But sleep did not come easy and lying around soon turned to hours wasted doing nothing. In hopes of doing something constructive, _anything_ at all really, the blonde slipped on a hoodie and padded her way down the stairs and out of the side door unnoticed (she took mental note of this saving the information for another time). The girl didn't go far though, only to the end of the drive. This _was _a new neighborhood after all and she didn't want to risk getting lost especially not at such a late hour.

And there sat the blonde, up against the garage door flicking the lid of her Zippo lighter open and closed. There was no flame but the familiar _click_ing sound had a calming effect on the girl.

From a passerby's viewpoint, she was just a random kid in her pajamas sitting outside in the driveway. Flipping the lid of a lighter open and closed. Looking intently at nothing. At three in the morning.

Though if someone got a good enough look without disturbing the girl, they could see the anxiety clouding her blue eyes occasionally. They could see thoughts were ping-ponging back and forth through her mind. Each trying to win dominance and be the spotlight cause of unease.

But there wasn't anybody else to be seen on the entire block, save for a wandering dog. There were no sounds to be heard but the _click _of the lighter, the distant sound of an occasional car passing somewhere not too far away, a soft muffled song playing along with it, and the light careful steps of a stray.


	2. Warden's calling for a lockdown, baby

The blonde stayed out long enough to watch the early morning twilight create pretty pink and purply colors in the sky.

_Note to self, _the girl thought. _Stretch from time to time._

Spencer not so elegantly made her way back into the house while she tried to work out the stiffness in her back. The door closed behind her carelessly and noisily. "Bastard door…" she mumbled tiredly rubbing a sore elbow.

The blonde started and let out a squeak. Her dad was making breakfast in the kitchen. She was so sure he heard her come in and was anticipating the million and five questions as to where she was and why she was coming back just now. Already making up excuses in her mind in case he started firing questions at her, Spencer crossed the space between the door and the stairs.

_I was… getting some fresh air._

_I left my sweater in the car._

_I was out for a jog._

She scoffed at the last one. _Yeah, "jogging,"_ dismissing that one. Like they were going to believe she was out exercising this early in the morning… or at all for that matter.

However, the dark-haired man didn't turn around. Instead, he just kept stirring whatever he was cooking on the stovetop, continuing as if he didn't hear a thing.

Spencer, a little more careful now, tiptoed quietly up the stairs to her bedroom. Somehow though she still managed to step on her own pant leg. She stumbled on the steps loudly and ended up pantsing herself in the process. She peered down the hallway to make sure that nobody saw that with a red face. Pulling her pajama bottoms up still thoroughly embarrassed though nobody saw, she ran the last few steps into her bedroom shutting the door behind her and collapsing face first onto the bed. But the girl failed to notice, because she didn't look back towards the kitchen, that her dad still stirring, let out an amused sigh and was shaking his head with a knowing smile.

-----

"Ashley."

A mumble escaped the brunette's sleeping form.

"_Ashley_," an impatient prod to the girl's ribs accompanied.

Groan. "Quit poking me, woman."

Kyla rolled her eyes. "Stop calling me 'woman,' Ashley. I'm your sister."

This earned a snort from the half awake teenager. "Hardly…" she mumbled under her breath. Sheets were pushed lazily aside as the girl turned from her stomach to her side. Through a squinted, groggy stare the girl looked expectantly at brown eyes so like her own. "Mmm?"

She regarded her sister with a curious look.

"_Speak_, Kyla." Ashley grumbled rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

The girl just smiled impassively at her sister.

"You came into my room and woke me up. Now what do you want?"

Unfazed by the brash tone of her sister—dismissing it as just grumpiness—the younger girl pulled out her cell phone from her jeans pocket. Her eyes were trained on the screen while she clicked a few buttons. "Mom texted me." She commented.

Ashley waited. A moment passed. She sighed. "And…?" Her sister had a habit of ending her sentences sounding like she was going to say something more.

Kyla's eyes, which were distracted by something on her cell phone, lit up then with realization. "Oh yeah."

_ADD much,_ the girl thought to herself.

"Mom told me to tell you that, uh…"

Eyes darted to large digital clock on her wall. It read 9:42. _Yup, _she thought. _Definitely too early for this…_

Ashley turned back onto her stomach. She listened as a few more buttons were clicked while her sister scrolled her inbox. "'Remember to punch in the security code when you come home at 4 in the morning, or just stop going out at all doing hell knows what.'" The girl stood to her full height. "Direct quote." Her fingers idly pressed buttons she memorized by heart as she composed another text message.

Ashley rolled her eyes at her sister's retreating form. _Maybe I should just stop _coming back_…_

The door was pulled quietly shut as Kyla left.

The girl sighed dramatically. Her covers kicked off the bed theatrically. Leaving her lying sprawled in her tank and boy shorts. The girl's nose twitched. "I want music," she declared to her empty room. The brunette stood lazily and fed a CD into her player. In 3 seconds the speakers were bleeding post-hardcore melodies onto her carpeted floor.

_So depressing,_ the girl thought.

Ashley smiled.

_**A few houses away…**_

The youngest Carlin woke up only four hours after collapsing on her bed. The sounds of heavy rock drifted in from her open bedroom window.

"Hm-wha…?" the blonde questioned her pillow.

From the hallway came a scoff. Groggy Spencer picked up her head to find her mother standing there laundry basket in hand, a disgusted look on her face. "How _rude_. You think they could turn it down, huh?"

She caught her daughter's half opened eyes. The girl shrugged spasmodically before dropping her head back onto her pillow.

Paula, her mother, walked into Spencer's room. No permission was needed because the woman started to pick up random articles of discarded clothes to throw them into the basket with no objections. As she neared the window Paula stopped. Her ears strained to determine which direction the disturbance was coming from. Spencer's bedroom window faced the backyard. Since the view showed little, she settled on glaring at their neighbors from behinds' roofs.

"Teenagers…" she mumbled under her breath before proceeding to leave her daughter's room to go on to the next child's.

Spencer sighed before rolling over onto her side. And now she lay on her back. A couple of seconds later she threw her arm on top of her face. She lay still for a moment, eyes shut tight before the blonde flopped onto her stomach.

1, 2, 3…

The sixteen year old groaned. "I'm awake."

"Oh that's nice, honey." The smiling face of her mother popped into her bedroom. "Lunch'll be ready in a few," Paula explained.

"Ready right now actually." A tall dark haired man appeared by her mother. "Morning, squirt."

Spencer stretched lazily. "G'morn'n dad," came out as a garbled half yawn and greeting.

"You missed breakfast."

"Yeah…" she ran a hand through her hair. "Was pretty tired this morning, you know?"

Her father nodded with a slight smile. A comfortable silence set in. "Hey, me and your brothers are going to the supermarket later. You know, stock up on some food. Cupboards are pretty bare." His daughter nodded uninterested. "Come with us, kiddo."

"Sure," was her halfhearted response.

The man sighed content. "So what do you think of the new place, Spence?" He eyed the room with a satisfied smile.

For a moment, the girl's blue eyes fogged over with something. Though in an instant it was gone. A forced grin replaced it. Her parents didn't know the difference. "It's, it sure is something different, Dad."

This seemed to satisfy them.

"Well," Paula, laundry basket still in hand, started to move, "I'll go put these away."

"Right." Arthur watched with comforted smile at his wife before turning his gaze to his daughter. "Lunch is on the table. Just… y'know, might want to clean up a bit, Spence." The man pawed at his face.

It took a moment for Spencer to take the hint. "Oh," her hand was quick to her own cheek. _Ew. _A disgusted look crossed her face as her fingers came in contact with something warm and slightly sticky. _Drool._

Arthur chuckled a deep, warm laugh. _Goodness, I love my family._


	3. See you around

"Back home, or in California—what is it with kids smoking in the parking lot?"

The Carlin car passed a small group of frowzy looking teenagers congregating against the side wall of the supermarket. Paula leaned in close to the passenger's side window to give them a decent disapproving look before her husband pulled into the next row of cars in search of a free parking spot. This repeated a couple of more times each time _those kids _came into view.

Spencer sighed notably.

Arthur had been driving around for a good five minutes before he found a place to park.

"Pretty packed, I'd say, for a Saturday afternoon," he commented offhandedly.

The family replied mixed yeah's and uh-huhs as buckles were undone and doors were opened then slammed shut. Her brothers Glen and Clay were already halfway down the length of the parking lot racing each other when Spencer stepped out of the car. Arthur and Paula were enjoying a leisurely stroll together arm in arm a few cars ahead of their daughter. The girl stood awkwardly behind the family's Saab alone. She looked around. Nobody. Funny that in a parking lot filled to the brim with cars Spencer still managed to feel alone. Her hands were hastily shoved into her front pockets. And with a gaze two feet in front of her on the pavement, the blonde made her way to the entrance of the supermarket.

She hadn't walked for more than five seconds though, when a pair of shoes kicking lazily caught her attention. All black canvas shoes scribbled on with a single signature in metallic silver sharpie it was. Spencer stopped short. The handwriting seemed rushed but still managed to look neat at the same time. But before the girl got a good chance to read what it had said the feet stopped kicking and the owner looked pointedly, or seemingly pointedly, at her from behind oversized sunglasses.

"What?"

The girl sat leaning up against the back windshield of a well kept car.

"I was, uh… nothing." The blonde turned away for a moment. A blush crept its way up her neck and stained her cheeks. She stood self-conscious under the gaze of this complete stranger. It felt as if she was being scrutinized by the black haired girl, Spencer could just feel it.

A moment had passed before the Carlin had realized what she was doing. Her hands were pushed back into her front pockets and she made for a hurried escape. However a light grip at her elbow kept her from going too far.

"Hey," the girl said.

Spencer regarded her for a moment. _Wow, _she thought. _She's fast._

The girl ran a hand through her hair. Hair that was unnaturally black, Spencer noted.

She raised her eyebrows and with an amused grin she repeated, "Hey."

The Carlin stood for a moment with the girl's hand at her elbow before finally responding. "Hi," came out weakly.

The other girl smirked at Spencer's obvious discomfort.

Silence set in for a second.

"You don't say much, do you?"

"Nah."

Neither made to move.

_This is more awkward than when she was sitting on the car._

Spencer regarded the stranger. She wore jeans that must have been black at some point but now rested at a warm gray. A plain black belt kept it tight at her hips. Her top half was adorned with an almost too bright blue tee sporting some obscure band Spencer had never heard of. Her green bow stood out brilliantly against her pitch black hair. And glasses just as black as her hair covered her eyes keeping Spencer from reading them.

"Hmm—what'd you say?" the blonde was distracted with her own thoughts to hear what the other girl had said.

The strange girl chuckled. Her hand dropped from the other's arm. "I said," she drew out the last word while her hands searched for her front pockets, something Spencer noticed she did too. "You wanna hang out, Barbie?"

"Spencer." She corrected automatically. "Wait," Spencer looked around, "you want to hang out, like now?"

The black haired girl shrugged carelessly. "Yeah, why not?"

A confused but amused smile turned up on Spencer's face. "You want to hang out at _Wegman's_ with me?"

As if it were nothing to be thinking it odd to do, the strange girl nodded. "Sure."

"Well…" her parents and brothers were sure to already be inside the supermarket. There seemed to be no harm in saying yes. She'd still be here when they got back right?

… _Unless this girl was some type of… kidnapper or something. I've never heard of a female abductor before, but that's probably how she rounds up all her victims! I mean, who would expect her to be one? She doesn't look that much older than me… but what is she doing talking to strangers anyway—_

Spencer's inner rant was disrupted though when her hand was picked up by the other girl.

"What are…"

Her question was answered though when a pen was pulled from the other girl's back pocket. She scrawled something down on the blonde's wrist. The pen was replaced when she was done.

"You must not be from around here."

Spencer dropped her hand to her side. "What makes you say that?"

"You look lost." The girl chuckled to herself. She gave Spencer a half-smile before turning around and walking away. She had watched her walk to the group of _those kids._

_Hm, _Spencer thought.

She was about to put her hands back in her front pocket when she remembered something. The blonde brought her hand closer to her face to see what the strange girl had written. In well practiced handwriting written in pink ink were the words: _Call me if you need direction_ followed by a phone number.

She stood there for a moment longer before pushing the weird encounter to the back of her mind, and continued on her way to the front doors of the supermarket.


	4. Five words is all it would take

_I went to bed at midnight and have been awake since 2:30 AM. Nothing good was on tv so I decided to waste my time in front of the computer instead_ X) _I've got Flyleaf and Haste the Day blaring. Here's the next chapter. I'll_ try _to update regularly. Can't promise that I will though, sorry._

"You changed your hair."

"Yeah."

A smile was evident on the now black-haired girl as she approached the group of familiar faces. Her left hand was pulled out of her pocket as she gave a lazy one armed hug to the person closest to her. Which just happened to be Ashley Davies, one of her best friends.

The slightly smaller girl leaned in easily to the embrace. She had a sly teasing look about her. Before her friend had a chance to ask what she was smirking about though, Ashley reached out and ruffled the girl's hair. At first Red was surprised. Her mouth dropped open in an instant. However she shut it just as quickly and sighed. Being Ashley's friend was like babysitting a five year old.

Had it been anyone else mess up her hair like this, the girl would have 'flipped a bitch' as the black-haired girl put it. But this wasn't just anyone else, it was _Ashley._ Her 'bff' as the brunette put it. Red stood still waiting for her best friend to finish.

Ashley didn't stop until her friend's hair was thoroughly messed up. The brunette giggled at her handiwork. Hair in the back, sides, and top of her head stood at odd angles. Bangs completely masked the girl's green eyes and covered most of her face.

A familiar warm laugh called out. "'S cute, Red."

Behind a fringe of long black hair Red smiled. Toby was the only guy she knew that would use the word cute. Well, the only 'straight' guy anyway.

The boy sidled over next to Ashley. Both girls refused the pack of cigarettes Toby offered. He took it in stride and shook one out of the pack to smoke for himself.

Red looked exasperated as she tried blowing the strands of hair from her eyes only to have them drop back onto her face.

"Relax." Ashley placed friendly kiss on the girl's cheek. "You look nice." She tousled Red's hair once more for good measure. "I like it better this way anyway."

Toby fumbled with the lighter in his hand. "Looks like you just had wild sex."

"Wild sex in a car." Ashley added.

"Wild car sex in the backseat while speeding down the highway."

Ashley chuckled.

"Oh damn," Red deadpanned. "You have caught me."

Toby took a long drag from his cigarette. Behind him a few more of their friends still leaned up against the wall. Toby turned his back to them. He looked over his shoulder to make sure the couple others were involved in their own conversations before asking what he had been semi-curious about for a few minutes now.

"So who was the blonde?" Toby took another drag.

"That's not good for you, you know…" she vaguely pointed to the Newport between his fingertips.

The boy smiled. "Don't change the subject, Red." He shook the ash off the end of the cigarette.

She looked to the parking lot for a moment. "I wasn't changing the subject."

Ashley absentmindedly fluffed her friend's hair up some more. She looked between the two. "Oh you were _so_ changing the subject there, dear."

"No I wasn't."

"Yeah, you were."

"How are you going to tell me what I meant, Ashley?"

The brunette smirked. "And _now,_ you're avoiding the subject."

Toby caught Ashley's eye. They shared a look. He took another breath from his Newport, trying to peek at Red from the corner of his eye. "She was hot," he said aloof.

Red's blush was obvious against her pale skin.

Ashley knew what the boy was doing. She, too, pretended to be casual about her comment. "Oh yeah, she's no Lacey Mosley, but it's feasible that I might consider to possibly think about maybe perhaps doing her… perchance."

Toby tried to keep his composureas he heldback a laugh. _Smooth, _he mouthed out to Ashley. The brunette smiled proudly back.

However, Red didn't seem to notice the exchange between her two friends. "Yeah she was alright." She looked away again and busied herself with a discarded bean bag at her feet.

Toby widened his eyes at Ashley.

The brunette shook her head. _No…_she mouthed.

_Yes!_ He nodded his head certainly.

Ashley thought for a moment. She looked over at her best friend. Usually so well composed, she stood before them looking down at the ground kicking lazily at a hackysack. Her brow lightly creased and her head tilted to the side. The brunette looked back over at Toby. _Nah…_ she mouthed.

"I gave her my number." Red looked up with an unsure smile.

Toby, who was just about ready to flail his arms trying to convince Ashley he was right, quickly calmed down and manipulated his face to seem cool and languid. He cleared his throat. "Yeah?"

"Ya know, if she wanted to hang out with… us, or whatever."

"Mhmm."

Ashleyplayfully shoved Red. And just like that, the subject was dropped. Red stumbled one step to the side as her friend took the spot she was standing in. Ashley balanced the hackysack thather friendwas kicking around haplessly on the tip of her shoe.

"Ready?" Ashley slowly raised her foot in the air. She stuck out her tongue trying to keep it balanced. Red rolled her eyes but laughed anyway. Ashley looked so young sometimes.

The black haired girl leaned slightly forward. "Yeah babe, go for it." She knew her friend wasn't going to able to toss the bean bag in the air _and _kick it. Ashley sucked at hackysack. Honest truth though. The girl could jump over tall concrete things and toss ping pong balls into cups like nobody's business. But when it came to hackysack, the younger girl just didn't have the balance or foot-eye coordination for it. Nonetheless, Red decided to humor her friend and pretend to wait for the bean bag to come her way.

Ashley counted off to herself before tossing the little bag into the air. And just as predicted, she missed when she tried to kick it. She missed the bag horribly.

"Ahh!" Red shielded her face with her arms. "Holy shit! Way to almost kick me in the face, Ashley…"

Toby stood only about a foot away still huffing on his cigarette. "It's okay, Ashley. You'll get her face next time."

Red scowled as she pushed him in the side. But her glare faltered when Ashley almost tackled her to the ground laughing her apology. She hugged her best friend tight for a moment before pulling back beaming. "Sorry bout that, beautiful."

"It's okay," she ceded. Touching her face histrionically Red said, "As long as my girlish good looks and charm are still in tact, I shall be fine." This earned a snicker from the smaller girl.

"So where'd that hackysack go?"

"I…DK." Both girls looked around the ground near them. However, it was Toby who found it.

"It's over there." He pointed in the general direction of the street. Right in the middle of the road laid the dirty yellow smiley faced hacky.

"How the hell did it end up there?" Ashley wondered out loud.

"Haha," Red said. "Don't know, but the bastard got some distance."

Ashley took a step towards the bean bag, but suddenly stopped short as a car came speeding by… well, speeding for driving in a parking lot. The guy behind the wheel was actually doing only thirty miles an hour. Regardless though, the car ran over the little bag once, twice, with the front and back wheel, and ripped it open. Little plasticballs rolled out onto the pavement.

The brunette's face dropped. "Aww." She looked sadly at the beads as they scattered.

Red rolled her eyes with a smile. "It's alright pookie, I'll get you another one."

Toby reached the end of his cigarette. He took one long last breath before throwing it to the ground and extinguishing it with the toe of his shoe. "Hey Red?"

"Mmm?"

"You brought your car right?"

The black haired girl nodded. "Sure, why?"

"Cheyah, I think I left one of my hackysacks in there." He held Red's hand and pulled lightly in the direction he saw her coming from before. "Wanna go get it so you guys can finish your… rousing game?"

Red glanced over at Ashley. The girl was still looking a little glum over the hackysack. "Okay, let's go. I parked over here," and she led him away.

A knowing look crossed Ashley's face as she saw Toby look over his shoulder searching the parking lot. She knew what he was looking for. More so, she knew _who_ he was looking for. And Ashley knew what he was going to try to do when he found her. The girl smiled to herself.

_There is no fucking way._

The brunette decided to follow Toby and Red, walking at a leisurely pace.


	5. Chapter 5

Spencer looked at the number written on her hand the whole ride home. Nobody had asked any questions about it but the girl doubted that anyone had even noticed. Everyone else was absorbed in their own little world to notice what had been going on in Spencer's.

The rest of the family's afternoon was spent filling the kitchen cabinets with the newly bought food, moving furniture around, trying to make the house feel more home-y_. _Every now and then though when Spencer got another look at the fading ink on her skin, her mind wandered to other things. Mostly she thought about taking up the black-haired girl on her offer. She _did,_ after all, seem harmless. And this _was_ a new town—who's to say that everybody would be as nice as she had been to her?

It couldn't hurt to make a new friend.

Still, though. There was something about that girl that Spencer couldn't quite put her finger on…

A week had passed and she still didn't call. But it was not because she decided not to hang out, actually Spencer almost completely forgot about the odd girl in the Wegman's parking lot. School started up for her and there were more important things to worry about than strange girls with monosyllable answers and unnatural black hair.

It was now Saturday morning/late Friday night. Her first week at school and she did not talk to anyone, let alone make any friends. This was the Carlin's sixth move in the last three years. After the third or fourth relocation the girl gave up trying to build a life. Surely California would be no different than any of the others.

The girl sighed heavily to herself.

Maybe it shouldn't be?

Spencer wasn't exactly sure how she ended up dialing the number she saved a week ago under 'weird wegmans girl,' but she had. Somebody picked up after two rings. "Uh… hi…?"

There was a chuckle on the other end. "Hi yourself."

Quiet dominated the next couple of seconds of the conversation. She checked the time on her home screen. 1:47 AM. it had read. The blonde could feel her face heating up with a blush "Oh fuck… I didn't wake you, did I?" She didn't realize it was that late already.

A rustling sound on the other end could be heard. "Nah. I'm usually up anyway because of my insomnia or some shit like that."

"Ah alright, I see."

Another silence took over. This seemed to be common between the girl with black hair and Spencer.

"So _who _is this?"

_Oh right, didn't introduce myself._ "Sorry, it's Spencer."

"Spencer…" the other girl asked more than said.

"Yeah, from the parking lot at the supermarket the other day." _Maybe calling her wasn't such a good idea…_

"Oh! I remember you, yeah—Barbie—yeah, haha. I didn't expect to hear from you." There was an easy laugh in her voice.

The blonde let out an imaginary breath. At least the other girl wasn't all weird about the situation. "Mhm just you know, decided to call you… a week later… at two in the morning... keep up the mystery thing."

She laughed at the girl's joke. "Couldn't sleep either, huh babe?"

"Nah." The other girl's laughing seemed to ease Spencer's tenseness.

"I'm Stacy by the way."

It wasn't until then that Spencer realized she still didn't know the black haired girl's name. "Stacy," the named rolled off her tongue.

"Yeah, but bleh, nobody calls me that besides my grandma."

"What should I call you then?"

"Red."

"Red?"

The black haired girl giggled. "Yeah, Red. That's what my friends call me and you're my friend, I've already decided."

Spencer leaned up against her bed frame. "You've already decided _for _me?"

"Ayup."

The blonde chuckled to herself. "Alright. So why do your friends call you Red?"

"Because of my hair… I uh, I mean it's black now, but _at the time_ my hair was this like… this Hayley Williams red color."

"Wow, I can only imagine. I love Paramore by the way."

"Me too. Easy music to listen to. The hot and amazing lead singer is just a perk."

Spencer sighed dreamily. "Yeah, pretty amazing."

On the other end, Red raised her eyebrow. She was curious but decided it better not to ask what she was thinking. "At the moment, I am… looking through my friend's CD book."

"Is that what you normally do at three in the morning?"

"For the most part. What do you do?"

Spencer looked at the back of her hand. She decided to sit in her room tonight rather than in the driveway like she had for the past week when she couldn't sleep. Spice things up a bit. "Nothing really. Not much you _can_ do, ya know?"

Red nodded her head then realized Spencer couldn't see her. "I feel you. That's why I usually just bug my best friend at her place." She laughed. "Say hi, pookie."

Spencer could hear the muffled voice of another girl in the background. '_Wha—who is this?' _Then more clearly as the phone was probably brought closer to the girl, "Uh… hi Red's new friend."

The blonde rolled her eyes with an amused smile. "Hello Red's other friend."

Soon the more familiar voice of Red was back. "That was her."

"I realized." Spencer smiled. "Am I bothering you guys or something?"

"Nah." On the other end Red was looking over at Ashley. Currently the girl was still flipping through the giant book of CDs that sat between either girl. "Nothing much to do 'member?"

"Oh yeah."

There was a girlish squeal on Red's end. "Ashley found something she liked," she informed Spencer. "Just so ya know."

"I see," the blonde said with a content smile.

Muffled, again probably where the phone was pulled away from Red's face, Spencer could hear Red talking to what must have been Ashley:

'_Pfft… Ashley, you really should stop that.'_

A mumbled answer was her response.

'_Fine. Whatever… I gotta pee, man.'_

Spencer giggled to herself. She heard that part clearly.

'_Could you talk to her real quick?'_

Though Spencer could not tell because she couldn't see her, Ashley was giving Red a 'you got to be kidding me' kind of look. The black haired girl looked at her best friend with pleading eyes. Ashley's expression was confused, but still softened.

'Alright,' she sighed.

Spencer was completely lost to their silent exchange.

"Heyyy, Spencer?" Red spoke clearly into the receiver.

"Myup?"

"I'll be back real quick, so here—talk to Ashley."

"Okay…? Oh hi, Ashley," she added when she heard a sigh on the other end that didn't match Red's upbeat tone.

"Hey." Either Ashley was especially quiet or the music in the background was especially loud. It had probably been a combination of the two.

"So what are you listening to?"

On the other end, Ashley took a breath from her cigarette. Next to her, her stereo speakers were pounding out heavy but somehow still melodic beats. "Bullet For My Valentine," the brunette said nonchalantly.

Spencer leaned her head against her bed frame. "They scream," the blonde commented offhandedly.

A grin found its way onto the other girl's face. "Yeah."

"Cool."

And that was that. They fell into an easy silence. Not almost awkard like it had been with Red, but somehow… familiar. Comfortable.

_A/N…sorry it's not better. Been a while. _


End file.
